Traveling to Turkey? Be careful of a possible strike.
Monday, July 16th, 2007Hava-Is members to walk out this Friday
The New Anatolian / Ankara
16 July 2007
An indefinite strike, over a pay dispute with the national carrier, by thousands of aviation workers at Turkish Airlines (THY) has been set to begin on Friday (July 20) – the start of the summer holiday peak. Strike action by workers comes after a two week deadline set by the union expired without any agreement in negotiations on a new collective agreement for more than 11,000 workers at the airline.
Although Union representatives have been in discussions with the company since March, THY and the Turkish civil aviation workers’ union Hava-Is have so far failed to broker a new collective agreement. The Turkish Civil Aviation Union Hava-Is announced that its members working for Turkish Airlines (THY) and THY Technical will walk out.
The union represents pilots, cabin crew and ground staff at the airline. The move threatens to disrupt air travel at the height of the tourism season and further harm the sector, which is already struggling from a series of bombings at vacation resorts last year by PKK terrorists that scared away visitors.Head of Hava-Is union Atilla Yalcin said: “THY management has deliberately dragged their feet on this since March, counting on the protection of our country’s harshly anti-union laws, which do everything possible to delay and prohibit any industrial action.
“Unfortunately for them we have complied with this draconian process, and the next step is to strike,” he said. “In the last few days the airline management has been threatening to terminate the contracts of over 1,000 employees. They even said they might shut down THY Technical completely. However, we will not be intimidated.” According to the union, following the post-September 11th downturn THY workers accepted a 10 per cent cut in salaries. Since then the company has made a steady profit. The union has been negotiating for improved pay and work conditions for its members for the past four months. On July 4, Hava-is rejected a pay package offered by the company that did not meet the union’s expectations, Yalcin said.